Two House committees advanced major cryptocurrency legislation on Wednesday, pushing federal Bitcoin reserves and crypto tax reform forward just hours after the Senate stumbled on a broader market-structure bill. The back-to-back votes underscored that Washington's crypto agenda remains active on multiple fronts even as comprehensive market-regulation efforts face resistance.

The House Ways and Means Committee, the chamber's chief tax-writing panel with jurisdiction over federal tax policy, approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act in a 38-5 vote, advancing the first comprehensive federal framework for how Americans are taxed on cryptocurrency transactions. On the same day, the House Financial Services Committee, which holds jurisdiction over banking and securities matters, moved forward with legislation to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, placing federal government holdings under statutory custody rather than leaving them scattered across agencies.

The committee action came less than 24 hours after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, a broader bill intended to establish comprehensive digital asset regulations and clarify the division of roles between the SEC and CFTC. The procedural vote failed 49-50, well short of the 60 votes typically needed to break a filibuster and move major legislation through the Senate. The Senate defeat exposed disagreements over stablecoin competition with banks and ethics provisions, but the House's progress suggests narrower crypto measures are not blocked by the same disputes.

Reshaping How Crypto Transactions Are Taxed

The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act tackles questions that have persisted for years about how existing tax law applies to blockchain activity. Under the bill, mining and staking rewards would be treated as ordinary income, though lawmakers are still debating when that income should be recognized for tax purposes.

The legislation would also bring digital assets under wash-sale rules, the restrictions that prevent investors from selling an asset at a loss to claim a tax benefit and immediately buying back substantially the same investment. Under current law, those restrictions apply to stocks and securities rather than to digital assets, a gap the bill would close. One provision creates an exception for certain crypto network or transaction fees of $10 or less, easing the tax burden on small blockchain transactions.

The 38-5 vote reflected bipartisan support, although some Democrats argued that portions of the bill to tax benefits for wealthy crypto investors and the industry. The measure also addresses reporting requirements and establishes federal rules covering the treatment of digital assets under frameworks already applied to traditional investments.

Putting Bitcoin Reserves Into Federal Statute

The American Reserve Modernization Act, designated H.R. 8957, would establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a separate Digital Asset Stockpile within the Treasury Department. The reserve would house federally held Bitcoin obtained primarily through criminal and civil forfeiture, while other government-owned digital assets would be kept separately. The Financial Services Committee advanced the measure in a 28-21 vote, with support concentrated among Republicans.

The proposal carries particular weight because the Bitcoin reserve concept currently rests on executive action. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March 2025 establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and directing the government to retain certain forfeited Bitcoin rather than sell it. Unlike an executive order, which a successor president can revoke, a statute remains in force unless Congress changes it, so putting the reserve into federal statute would make its legal basis less dependent on the policy of a particular administration. The legislation includes restrictions intended to treat the government's Bitcoin as a long-term holding rather than an actively traded asset.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill described the proposal as a way to bring crypto holdings scattered across federal agencies under consistent Treasury custody and oversight. The legislation was introduced by Alaska Republican Rep. Nick Begich and had 23 cosponsors heading into Wednesday's committee consideration.

Neither Bill Has Become Law Yet

Committee approval advances the legislation but does not guarantee a House floor vote, Senate passage, or a presidential signature. A bill becomes law only after both chambers of Congress pass identical text and the president signs it, so both measures still face significant hurdles in the legislative process. The House is also expected to leave Washington ahead of the November elections, meaning the tax legislation could slip into the post-election lame-duck session, when lawmakers return after voters go to the polls to finish business before the new Congress is seated.

For crypto policy, Washington is now moving on two distinct tracks. The Senate's attempt at comprehensive market-structure legislation has stalled over regulatory scope and financial-stability concerns, while more targeted proposals covering Bitcoin reserves and crypto taxes continue to advance through the House. The divergence shows that Washington disagrees on how broadly to overhaul crypto regulation, even as narrower technical fixes continue to build bipartisan momentum. From here, the markers to watch are whether House leadership schedules floor time for either bill before the election recess and whether the Senate makes another attempt to clear the CLARITY Act's 60-vote bar. Whether either proposal survives the full legislative process remains uncertain as Congress navigates competing priorities and a compressed calendar before the midterm election.